REU Student at MBL is Third Author on Paper Receiving National Attention | Ripon Press
Micaela Rivera was a NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) student at MBL in Roger Hanlon's lab.
Ripon College senior Micaela Rivera of River Falls, Wis., is the third author on research that came out in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B earlier this month. The article is titled “Cuttlefish exert self-control in a delay of gratification task.”
The findings have since been getting national attention in numerous outlets, including National Public Radio, The Atlantic, Science Daily, Smithsonian Magazine and Live Science.
Cuttlefish are a cephalopod marine mollusc related to octopus, squid and nautiluses. The cognitive behavior research was conducted at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. Rivera helped train the cuttlefish for the experiment and collected data.
The article stated, “Here, for the first time, we provide evidence of a link between self-control and learning performance in a non-primate species.”
Rivera is majoring in psychobiology at Ripon. As a freshman, she was encouraged by Associate Professor of Psychology Julia Meyers-Manor to apply for REUs through the National Science Foundation. These fund research opportunities for undergraduate students at host institutions. Rivera secured a spot in the summer research program in Woods Hole between her freshman and sophomore years. Read more of the article here...